Sunday, October 26, 2014

5 Blogs to Being Agented! Blog #1: How to get an Agent (without the indiscriminate use of Duct Tape.)

Editor's note: In celebration of #NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, I am reposting a foursome of widely popular blogs on the secrets of being published, and posting a guest blog on the subject written by a special guest blogger. (hints to follow, but think really big)So, without further ado, here is blog #1:

I finally did it! After nine years of writing, three manuscripts, and five years of sending queries
to literary agents, I finally got the contract for which I have been
waiting. (And, yes, it was just as sweet as I had hoped.) But that's not
why I am writing this. I am writing because I think I learned a few
things along the way that might help someone else navigate through the
treacherous waters of the agent-finding process.

When I
say treacherous, I mean emotionally treacherous; to my knowledge, no
would-be author has ever lost an eye in the process--although I wouldn't
rule it out entirely. I have met a good few agents, and to a person
they were all genuine, nice people. But they are nice, BUSY people, and
therein lies the problem. Despite the fact that many agents still
utilize the slush pile to help fill their lists, it is a mixed blessing
at best. On average, an agent slogs through hundreds (thousands?) of
queries to sign just one client. If you follow a few agents on
Twitter--and you should--you will see how they feel about their in-box.

I
say this because you need to understand the disparate perspectives held
by either side of the process. A query that represents two or three
years of effort--and sometimes many more--may be deleted after less than
30 seconds of consideration. I once received an e-reject in less than 2
minutes after hitting send--you know you are Nathan Bradsford! But you have to expect this; everybody
gets lots of rejections, especially at the query level. The truly
difficult part of the process is at the submission level. The reason
behind this is the increase in expectation that naturally follows a
request for some or all of the manuscript. Who wouldn't get pumped up to
get a request--it is, after all, a validation of your work.

The
problem is, the odds are still stacked against you, and you have
already gotten your hopes up. Have you ever wondered why an agent only
requests a partial manuscript--the first fifty pages or so--when a full
manuscript can be sent (by e-mail) just as easily? The answer is
expectation management; a request for a partial shows restrained
interest, whereas a full request could keep the writer waiting by the
phone. (Guilty!) Agents don't want to be dream-killers; they are just
trying to make a living, and they do this by selling books to
publishers. To do this, they have to read hundreds of manuscripts, which
means they are reading your manuscript looking for a reason to REJECT.

The
key to getting an agent is to change the way an agent reads your
manuscript, from reading with intent to REJECT to reading with intent to
ACCEPT. I did it, and you can too. I will explain in the next post.
;)

And oh by the way: The Intern (the serialized novel I am writing on #Wattpad) has been nominated for the #Wattys2014 (Thanks to my mother and her Canasta group). Please click on the link and share it on Facebook and #Twitter with the hashtag #Wattys2014 to vote.The Intern: A Spinal Needle in the Dark